I recently recovered from wrist surgery. It was a broken scaphoid that went undiagnosed for three months, but after a screw, a bone graft, and six more months, has fully recovered. Anyway, my doctor told me that I can now lift weights, but that pushups would not be good for my wrist, which is annoying because they are a pretty big part of my workout and I have a lot of catching up to do after 9 months.

I know there are lots of other ways to work the chest, but pushups are really exactly what I need right now. I am looking mostly to tone up my whole body, regaining some strength, but I don't need to add much mass, and some pushups, pullups, crunches, and cardio would be just the thing I think. I do all different types of pushups to work my upper body in a variety of ways, and they work the core nicely as well. Also I can do all that right here at home rather than paying for a gym. Point is, I would like to find a way to do push ups without straining my scaphoid (a small bone in the wrist).

As I understand it, though, it's just the regular, palm-flat-down type of pushup that is harmful. In other words, it's not the pushup motion that is damaging, just that wrist position, which strains this particular bone especially. Fist pushups are apparently safe, but aren't too comfortable, and they don't seem as versatile. This seems to be a very common injury, so does anyone have a similar situation, or any suggestions as to how I can keep doing pushups? Are those "Perfect Pushup" things that turn as you push worthwhile? Or maybe just a bar? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks a lot!

I can't really comment on your wrist issue, but I do like the Perfect Push-up device.

Do you have access to dumbbells to see how performing push-ups on them my reduce the strain on your wrist?

yeah, I experimented with some dumbbells today. felt ok, although i noticed that I tend to keep my healthy wrist at a slightly more bent-back angle than my recovering one. I thought that doing dips would be ok based on the same principle, but those did not feel very good when I tried them. maybe just too much weight on the wrist. anyway, maybe i will look into the perfect pushups, since that's sort of the same position as pushing on dumbbells.